Steve Taylor's Musical Matinee

When recording and producing take their toll, Steve Taylor
likes to relax behind the camera.

By Lucas W. Hendrickson

Photos by Ed Rode

Steve Taylor, whether he realizes it or not, knows physics.

For years, the lanky alterna-troubadour has deftly vibrated air
molecules, both as a solo artist and frontman for the much-lamented Chagall
Guevara, to elicit senses of irony, humor and sometimes confusion in his
audience.

More recently, though, he has turned his considerable talents to the
visible spectrum, manipulating light waves to complement the audio
vibrations of other artists, and creating some of the most inventive music
videos in the Christian music industry.

Taylor's interest in filmmaking is not a recent development, however.
As a student at the University of Colorado, his curriculum included
experimental film classes, the products of which were, pun intended,
enlightening.

"Some of them were stupid, some of them were, you know, pretentious, but
some of them were really great in that they got you thinking about light,"
Taylor says. "And when it comes to filmmaking, that's definitely the most
important thing, the light."

Taylor's own early productions pointed in the direction that his
professional creative career would lead him--sideways down the wordplay
path. "When it came time for us to make our own little three-minute film,
I would automatically veer toward more narrative types of films, usually
leaning more toward comedy. Usually the class was so bored watching these
experimental things, I could always get them to laugh at something I was
doing," Taylor says.

As his stint of higher education was coming to an end, young Mr. Taylor
thought the time would be right to take his new-found expertise out in to
the brave new world of cable television.

"When I got out of college, I had an idea for making a comedy short
based on a story I'd come across about a man and wife who tried to trade
their baby in on a Corvette," he remembers. "I got the local Denver
personality who sold mobile homes late at night--which, you know, every
city has one of those--and his face was instantly recognizable to the local
people. He played the owner of the car lot and I played the salesman. We
put the whole thing together, and my uncle loaned me the money.

"I thought I could get on HBO, because at that time they were showing
these short films, but I got a very curt letter from them saying they
didn't find the subject matter of a baby being traded for a car very
funny," Taylor says. "So that was the end of my short film career, but
that was about the same time I got my recording contract."

Taylor's first album for Sparrow, Meltdown, introduced the
world to his sometimes skewed world view. But because in 1982 music video
was in its infancy, Taylor was also afforded the chance to show the world
his visual ways.

"That was about the same time MTV was catching on, and the whole idea of
music videos being an end unto themselves," Taylor says. "I went to the
record company and said, 'Wouldn't it be great to do a video of [the song]
"Meltdown at Madame Tussauds's," and they said 'Yeah, it would. Here's
five thousand bucks, go knock yourself out.'"

So where does a young man with a song, an idea and a minuscule budget go
to fulfill his video dream? The Hollywood Wax Museum, of course.

"It turns out the owner was a B-movie effects guy, so he figured out a
way to make the heads look like they were melting without messing anything
up," Taylor says. "I hadn't planned to direct it, but the only way to pull
it off was if I did direct it, because there wasn't any money to hire
anybody. There really wasn't even enough money to hire a cinematographer,
but there was a guy going to our church who was a really great
cinematographer and who had done a bunch of commercials. He got a crew
together for me.

"I had to deal with everything, arranging catering, making a deal with
the parking lot next door, permits, all that stuff. It was a real trial by
fire."

Visually, the "Meltdown" video was a success, even if it didn't spur the
expected trend of performers using floor mops as mic stands. Mentally and
physically, the process was such a chore for Taylor that he swore to
himself that when the time came to make a video for his second album,
someone else's posterior would grace the director's seat.

He didn't get his wish. After the first director bowed out, Taylor
moved into the role, ignoring one of the primary rules of show business and
working with a throng of kids on the clip for the song "Lifeboat."

"We had a full-on casting call," Taylor explains, "and a room full of
kids in this casting office. I explained to them what was going to be
happening with the video, and then I said, 'Let's go around and tell us
your name,' and the first girl said, 'Do you want my name or my agent's
name?'"

Taylor's next concept video project (after a concert film shot at
England's Greenbelt festival) was an entire video album for 1987's I
Predict 1990 record. The Predict project was full of
innovations, including the creation of the "Taylor-Cam," an intricate
harness strapped to Taylor's person supporting a bevy of Super-8 cameras,
recording his every movement and lip-sync for the song "Since I Gave Up
Hope I Feel A Lot Better."

Predict was Taylor's last album for the Christian market
before embarking on a self-imposed exile that really didn't last that long.
He returned to music as a member of the critically lauded, yet commercially
ignored Chagall Guevara. Chagall made one video, a clip for the song
"Violent Blue," in which Taylor's only chore was that of animated
frontman.

When the time came for Taylor to venture back into the Christian music
scene in 1993 with the album Squint, part of the bigger
picture of the project was another long-form video. This time, with the
help of photographer Ben Pearson, Taylor started thinking on a global scale
and used his production budget to take a very small crew to shoot in more
than half a dozen countries.

The finished product showcased videos with a vibrant simplicity that
took great advantage of their locales. Part of that simplicity came from
the dearth of equipment the crew was able to use. "Once we came off the
tripod, we were naked. We didn't have cranes, we didn't have dollies, we
couldn't take that stuff on a trip around the world. It was very much a
matter of playing to our strengths, which were composition, location and
action within the frame," Taylor says. "Ben, being a photographer, has
this really great eye for composition, and he's got a temperament that's
really well suited for this. He's very patient, a very hard worker and a
really good friend."

Taylor says he approaches each video project with a goodly amount of
divine help. "Each one, there's a lot of prayer involved, because you
realize how many things could go wrong, and no matter how well you plan in
advance, if God isn't there, you're screwed.

"We experienced it in massive doses on the trip around the world. I
mean, there is no reason that thing should have come off. At any
checkpoint we could have had all of our film confiscated, something could
have gone wrong with the camera--I mean, you can't get your 35mm camera
fixed at the mall overnight," Taylor says. "I'm not one of those guys who
will suggest that God manipulated weather patterns to help us make our
video, but for whatever reason, it went off better than anybody could have
possibly expected."

Their creative partnership solidified after their trip around the world,
Taylor and Pearson began producing videos for such artists as the Newsboys,
Twila Paris, Rich Mullins, Dakoda Motor Co. and Out of the Grey. Although
some of these artists are not creating music that would nominally fit into
the Steve Taylor style, he is able to take his unique visual sense and mold
it to fit each artist.

"At the essence of a video, you've got an artist that you're having to
portray. Everything makes a statement. You hate to talk too much about
image, but you realize when somebody steps in front of a camera, there's an
image there, no matter what you do to it. If they don't comb their hair,
that's making one statement. If they wear what they wear to the gym,
that's making another statement," Taylor says. "Then you've got what the
song is about. Sometimes the song is obvious enough, and it doesn't need
any further explaining. I don't think we've ever done a straight
performance piece. I think with everything there is a subtext there, and
it's that subtext that every good video has to have."

Taylor's next video projects include a new Out of the Grey clip and one
from Guardian's new record Buzz, which Taylor also produced.
Following several dates opening for the Newsboys this fall, Taylor will go
back into the studio to create the follow-up to Squint, and
there's no telling what laws of physics, both sonic and visual, he'll break
then.

Associate editor Lucas W. Hendrickson counts videotaping
a family reunion as his only directorial work.

Special thanks to Will Pike, General Manager of Regal Cinemas
Bellevue Cinema 12 in Nashville, for allowing us to use the theater for
our photo shoot.